This blog is about our adventure in China to hike three days through the Grand Canyon of China. We are talking about the Tiger Leaping Gorge. From Chengdu we travel to the city of Lijiang, located in the southwest of China. This place used to be an important city on the trade route from Asia to Tibet, high in the mountains. It suddenly becomes difficult to get there, because unfortunately all trains are already full. That’s why we started looking for a cheap flight.

Lucky to be alive

After some Googling, I find a flight for about sixty euros and that includes luggage. This concerns a Chinese low-cost airline and its reputation cannot really be traced. As is often the case, China seems like another planet in that regard, names and places are impossible to find in any language other than Chinese. Even when booking online, I sometimes have to throw entire sentences into Google Translate to get it out: the only English on the website is limited to the name: Lucky Air. Well, we’ll just have to have a bit of luck then.
And whether it’s a coincidence or not, I’ve never experienced so much turbulence within an hour. Halfway through I looked out the window to make sure we were really flying and not riding up against an escalator. Then we fell a few more times and people started screaming en masse. I didn’t think I’d ever say it, but I’d rather hear them slurp.

A short honeymoon in Lijiang

From the airport in Lijiang we arrive in a slum via a bus and a taxi. Once again we have booked a questionable hotel, but this time a nice lady with a child in her arms comes running out of a garden to welcome us. We sleep in a kind of attic and because her ‘hotel’ is completely deserted, we get a free upgrade to another room. When you see our new room you would think: what should that other room look like!? We also sleep well there. We also ordered breakfast, but that was perhaps a little TOO enthusiastic. The rice, read: granular frying fat, fell into our stomachs like a block of concrete.
Lijiang is the old capital of the Naxi, a mountain people from southwest China who have their own culture. In the old town, hundreds of white houses are connected by fairytale streets with canals and bridges. For the Chinese, the city of Lijiang is known for its romance. Newly married couples even go there for a month’s honeymoon and believe that the city brings good luck to the relationship.
The most beautiful part of the city is just north of the historic center, a holiday resort for emperors: the Black Dragon Pool. One of the most beautiful spots for a postcard photo, the colorful pagoda and ornate bridge stand out against the enormous snow-capped mountains.

Back to nature: the Tiger Leaping Gorge

We are picked up from Lijiang by minibus and within two hours we are at the start of the big adventure. The Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the deepest gorges on earth with a height difference between mountain and valley of about 4000 meters. Hiking enthusiasts from all over the world come to this place to traverse the 16 kilometer long gorge. Truly one of the must-dos on a trip to China, but not for everyone. It is a bizarre, grueling journey, during which you will spend two whole days walking and climbing, thousands of meters up and down, through the forests and along the ravines.
Somewhere along the way you have to find a place to sleep before dark. The travel guides warn against exhaustion, altitude sickness, rockslides and falls. Something has gone wrong before, sometimes even with a fatal outcome! Anyway, you’re reading my blog (SPOILER ALERT): we survived.

Our route starts in the town of Qiao Tou, from a hostel called Jane’s. The route will end at another hostel called Tina’s. Because we are passing through, it is convenient that we can leave our large luggage at Jane’s for less than a euro and from Tina’s we will be taken back there by bus. Among the group of hikers starting the hike today, we are probably the least experienced. The entire bus seemed to be sponsored by Perry Sport Outdoor. There I am walking in my skinny jeans.

Day 1: a hellish climb to the highest mountain peak

When we leave we wisely decide to keep our vests and coats on. This idea lasts exactly an hour, because at the first real viewpoint we rest in soaked T-shirts with backpacks full of winter clothing. The sun is shining brightly and it suddenly doesn’t seem like February, but July… on Mars. We even have to be careful not to get burned today.
During the hike through the Tiger Leaping Gorge we follow arrows and Chinese characters drawn on the rocks with a paintbrush. So the question is whether we follow the walking route or a sign to Chang’s Noodle Paradise. Anyway, we always have a half-hearted black and white copy of a poorly drawn map showing the mountains and villages we will encounter. We try to reach the fourth village before it gets dark, but a given is that we will have to brave a hellish climb of 28 hairpin bends.

The 28 hairpin bends

After a few hours of fairly intense walking uphill, the climb starts to become increasingly difficult. At a certain point we know for sure that we have really reached the 28 hairpin bends. But no, at most six and then there will be another straight stretch. We always walk towards a point on the horizon, turn a corner somewhere and see the path continuing towards the next mountain top. The view then becomes more and more fantastic and the abyss more dizzying. Then we arrive at a small house with a saleswoman and it turns out that ‘hell’ has yet to begin. The hellish 28 turns are only now arriving, after five hours!

Suus and I count every bend of the hellish 28 in the sweltering sun. And that is motivating. Like army commandos we stomp our way through the steep rock path towards the highest mountain peak: number eight!! And break… Number nineteen!! And rest.. Number 28!! Wow, what a view. With trembling legs we have reached the highest point and from there we walk downhill to the village of Ya Cha, to sleep in a wooden hut along the ravine. That’s what I call ‘a room with a view’.

Day 2: deep into the gorge where the tiger made its jump

After about ten hours of being completely knocked out in all kinds of vague space dreams, a secret sun peeks over the mountain tops into our wooden mountain hut. Time for the second part of the hike through the Tiger Leaping Gorge, where we descend to the deepest point of the gorge. The end point is the place where, according to legend, a tiger jumped over the Yangtze and thus gave the gorge its name. Suus has some muscle pain and not much energy anymore, but fortunately the hard part is over. I don’t know why, but I don’t feel any pain and I’m kind of a Duracell bunny in that regard. It’s not that warm today either, so we put on our coats again.

The route is beautiful and at one point our path runs straight through a waterfall! We arrive at Tina’s much faster than planned, but it is not yet our end point: the legendary place of the tiger and the raging Yangtze River lie deep in the ravine, a few hundred meters below the village. In an incredibly steep descent, with a bridge here and there that looks more like my primary school crafts, we arrive at the end of the journey. We sit on a few large rocks in the middle of the swirling water of the river. While most of our fellow hikers are still on their way and don’t seem to have time to get here. These two untrained South Holland street urchins have made all those zip-off trouser-wearing thermal fleece jackets with Nordic Walking Sticks look great in our jeans. We can secretly enjoy that.

The most dangerous ladder we have ever seen!

But not for too long. Upon arrival down here we decided to buy a ticket for ‘The Ladder’: the fastest way up towards the village. If we had seen that ladder in advance, I would have eaten my ticket and jumped into the Yangtze. I don’t know why, but anything is better than that ladder!

After a few absurdly steep stairs we arrive at the poorly soldered lump of iron wire that has been stuck into the mountain with sticks at a ninety degree angle; with every step the thing rattles back and forth as if I were that very last tourist before it had to be renovated because of a very negative newspaper report. With Suus right below me, I had to stay strong. Halfway through she became paralyzed with fear and did not want to continue. I also fart seven colors, so if she stayed there she could have at least made a nice drawing. What an experience again!

And we’re just getting started…

I promised Suus that we will not go on any hikes for a while, because we are so exhausted. I am writing this blog on the bus. Suus is already in a coma as soon as she touches the seat. Which is starting to become quite bizarre: that child sleeps in every opportunity, every place and every position. Buses, boats, bouncing Lucky Air planes… You can put it on the windshield and it will arrive at the next destination rested.
The Tiger Leaping Gorge was an amazing adventure for us that we will never forget. While we are physically exhausted, we are mentally rested. Away from the hustle and bustle, in the middle of rugged nature and the most impressive surroundings that completely erase your thoughts. We travel on to the Tibetan Buddhist city of Shangri-La, even higher in the roof of the world. Then we will ring the Vietnamese border via Dali and Kunming. We will go looking for new places to do what we love most: travel!

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